Drilling Sequences To Help Improve Your Overall Guard

No matter how experienced you may be in the world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, there is no doubting how important and impactful a meaningful guard passing game is!

Some may neglect this in training, and overlook it at times, but like your submissions, guard passing must be drilled and worked on in order to become a better grappler!

Today, I’m going to dig into the approach that Stephen Whittier takes when it comes to drilling guard passes. There’s a subtle—albeit effective—science behind it that can really make or break your passing skills!

Passing Ability: The Proper Guard Passing Sequence

It’s easy to look at a match or highlights of the elite grapplers out there and see how easy some of them make guard passing seem. While these truly gifted Brazilian Jiu Jitsu players can make it seem like a walk in the park, there is in fact some science behind it.

When doing drills that have an emphasis on guard passing, you must have an understanding of how it breaks down and what exactly you’re working for:

First, you must deal with passing the legs.

After the legs, it’s important that you know how to handle the hips.

Lastly, you must be prepared to handle the upper body of your opponent.

Going into these drills, if you look for these specific body parts, then you should have no problems progressing with your guard pass skills.

You can’t just frantically jump right into the heat of battle expecting to score the pass, you must approach it with the proper understanding and what specific details come into play!

The Emphasis Placed On Guard Pass Drilling

Like any good drilling or workout plan, there must be some sort of consistency and pattern to follow. If you walk into the gym and go for broke right out the gate, then you’re obviously only hurting yourself as you won’t be able to put in the proper amount of time that it takes in order to become a better grappler.

Start out with some very basic types of guard passing drills:

Start with a drill that will focus on you simply being able to work off of your back. This doesn’t have to be anything spectacular; all you’ll need to be able to do is practice sitting up off of the mat with your partner exerting some top pressure.

Various isolation drills can be used later on as you become more comfortable in these positions. The more difficult the drills, the better you become and in due time, passing guard will become a staple of your game!

For obvious reasons, the importance of passing guard cannot be understated. It allows you to setup your offensive game and keeps your opponent on their heels. This is an aspect of grappling that every grappler should be putting some focus and effort into improving.